Tag Archives: Credit bureau

Thank you to all who contributed to this post and for having some fun with the comments. Below you will find the answers to the quiz. What I want and hope is that you will consider your credit and the value it has on your finances. I will continue to post on this topic in the future. In the mean time here is the greatest link to the most informative site I know on this topic. Go there and use it! It is a great resource! WWW.CREDITFAIRY.ORG Please give me some feed back on this resource. Do you have one we should know about?

1. It is impossible to change what’s in your credit report.
False

Correct! Inaccuracies, errors, out of date information canbe fixed with the credit bureaus. Accurate negative information (late payments, delinquencies, etc.) less than seven years old cannot be magically “erased” from your report, but you can begin to rebuild your credit by making positive financial choices going forward.

2. You have to make a lot of money to have a good credit score.
False

Correct! Your income is not included as part of your credit score or credit bureau report.

3. Paying cash for every purchase hurts your credit.

True

Correct! If you do not have any established sources of credit—credit cards, loans, etc.—lenders will actually consider you a credit risk. Paying your bills on time, using varied sources of credit and building a long credit history can bolster your credit score. Consider taking out a small loan and paying it off quickly or opening a new credit card and paying your charges off each month to help boost your score.

4. You have multiple credit scores.

True

Correct! You actually have at least four credit scores! Each of the three credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax and TransUnion—calculates your credit score based on their own information and data, in addition to calculating your FICO score based on their own information as well.

5. It takes 7 years to fix a poor credit score.
False

Correct! Negative credit items like late payments, defaults or delinquencies do remain on your credit report for seven years on average. However, you can begin to rebuild your credit score almost immediately by adding positive items (like on-time payments) to your credit history, thereby diluting the effect of past negative items.

Correct! Length of credit history accounts for at least 15 percent of your overall credit score, so if you have a number of credit cards and decide you want to close one, selecting the card with the longest history is not the best choice. Payment history accounts for up to 35 percent of your score, so make sure you keep the cards you’ve had the longest, and pay them on time every month. The longer you’ve had a card with a good payment history, the better!

7. When you get married, your credit score is merged with your spouse’s.
False

Correct! Your credit history is unique to you…forever. However, if you apply for joint credit (car loan, home mortgage, etc.) with your spouse, both credit histories will be reviewed. If one of you has a negative credit history, it can affect whether or not you will be approved for the loan and its terms.

8. Checking your credit report can hurt or lower it.
False

Correct! You have the right to check your credit report anytime; this is called an “administrative inquiry” and it does not affect your credit score. However, too many inquiries made by potential lenders over a twelve month period canlower your score, so be careful about opening too many cards or applying for too many loans in one year.

9. Credit scores and credit reports are two different things.

True

Correct! Your credit report is a comprehensive listing of all your current and past credit cards, loans, and other personal financial data. Your credit scoreis a number calculated from the data in your credit report and other information, like checking accounts.

10. Bankruptcy is a “fresh start” for troubled credit.
False

Correct! Bankruptcies are reflected on your credit report…so while you won’t owe any outstanding debts anymore once you have filed for bankruptcy, the bankruptcy itself will still have a negative impact on your overall credit score.

Part two of W.T.F. a fourth bureau! Below you will find very informative links that will give you a lot of information. Go there get schooled. Don’t let the blood sucking, money whores like MIKE MONDELLI take advantage of you. His company L2C is one of the companies that are involved in the fourth bureau. Here is the link to L2C http://www.l2cinc.com/ Here is how they spin what they do by using fancy language. I hate fuckers like this so pay some damn attention!

“L2C solutions use alternative, leading indicator data to inject insight, clarity and confidence into credit risk decisions across the consumer credit life-cycle”

This is what they are really saying!

Alternative = personal data that can be considered unreliable

Inject insight = sell your personal data for a profit

Consumer credit life-cycle = track all your personal shit without your knowledge or approval for the rest of your life. Fuck i hate companies like this that hide in the shadows.

Why do i even have to speak about this topic? Companies such as free credit score .com basically act as an agent for a fee. They attempt to get you hooked into a membership by offering free trial periods. usually a 7 day free trial period. Lets use free credit score .com as an example. free credit score REQUIRES you to enroll in their triple advantage program (Here is the A-HA moment. If you now go to the www.experian.com site you will see that the triple advantage program is the same program that is offered by Experian. Are you starting to understand that with this blog i am trying to teach you how to look past the sales pitch). That after your 7 day free trial period if you do not cancel within those 7 days will automatically start billing you $14.95 a month. You can cancel your membership at any time BUT YOUR FEES ARE NON REFUNDABLE. Now let’s go to their frequently asked questions page where you will find some interesting facts and extras. They only offer the Experian credit score. But for an ADDITIONAL one time fee they will order you the credit report from the other two credit bureaus. (that sucks because you should get all 3 credit reports as some times theydiffer from each other) they offer card safe service for an ADDITIONAL $19.95 annual fee. Child secure service for an ADDITIONAL $6.95 monthly fee. Which requires card safe for $6.95 monthly fee. Go to their site and read the rest for yourself. A few things i want to point out. Why in the world would anybody want to use a service like this, when you can go direct to the source (Equifax,Experian,Transunion) who already have most of your private and sensitive information and offer most of the same extra services. When you use free credit score .com they keep and store all your private and sensitive information. When you use their card safe service they keep and log all of your credit card information.(are you serious you worry about using your card at retail stores, but now you want to give access to your most private information and credit card numbers to a company based in san francisco but registered in Delaware). The credit score calculation that they call your plus score is just the standard calculation offered by Experian. They say things like, as a member you will ENJOY the following benefits like $50,000 product guarantee (yea but not in New York) I don’t know about you but i ENJOY things like a good restaurant, a base-ball game, sex, etc. I don’t know if i will ENJOY third-party sales offers, pop ups, or solicitations, or benefits at extra ADDITIONAL fees.We take privacy and security very seriously (i hope so, but what those that mean to me) all your information that they collect remains in their system. BOTTOM line you can get a free credit report from ALL 3 CREDIT BUREAUS AT www.annualcreditreport.com and if you want any of the extra options offered by free credit report .com you can get them directly from the 3 credit bureaus who ALREADY HAVE YOUR SENSITIVE information. Instead of having your information in the hands of some third-party company somewhere out-of-state. Come on people wake up. You should NEVER use companies like these that offer free credit reports, there are tons of them out there. Or who offer to repair your credit score (They CAN NOT) Instead go directly to the credit bureus. www.experian.com, www.transunion.com, www.equifax.com Its easy for you to do it yourself, but it does require you to do some work. Stop being lazy! Also go to www.ftc.gov

Come on man stop being a SUCKER already. Save your money. Nobody, I mean Nobody, no person, no company can legally repair your credit any faster or cheaper than YOU CAN! First things first GET YOUR CREDIT REPORT and be smart and get it for FREE at www.annualcreditreport.com even if you have good credit get an updated report to check for any discrepancies. It’s FREE! Here is a little trick. You are allowed 1 free credit report per year from each bureau. So instead of getting one from all 3 bureau’s at the same time AND THEN HAVING TO WAIT FOR A WHOLE YEAR BEFORE YOU CAN GET ANOTHER SET FOR FREE. Just order from one bureau every 4 months and you will always have a fresh FREE report thru out the year. Yes you’re welcome. Next move is to dispute any negative information on your report. You can do this thru the credit bureau website. The credit bureau must remove any negative information on your report that you dispute if they can not verify that the information is accurate. Next pay off any outstanding balances and leave a positive explanation on your file. Next call the creditor who posted to your report and ask them to remove the negative information. Hey it’s worth a try and it wont hurt to try.

A credit repair company is a person or a company that advertises to clean up your credit report. These companies typically advertise that they can erase bankruptcies, liens and judgments from your credit report. BULL SHIT nobody can remove accurate negative information from your credit profile, PERIOD! They sometimes try to set you up with a new identity. In reality, no one can erase accurate information from your credit report and encouraging you to create a new identity is a crime, according to the Federal Trade Commission. One example of a common illegal practice credit repair companies use is to have you create a false identity by applying for an Employer Identification Number to use instead of your Social Security Number. This is illegal, and if you do that, you could be prosecuted.